#Chimera people code
You would then see that the genetic code is different. If you can find any, and sort them away from the mom's cells, you could compare the DNA from both sets. 3 But it isn’t always possible to do this, especially if the cells have similar characteristics. If they have different characteristics than the mother’s blood, it could be possible to tell them apart. Cells from the fetus can sometimes be found in the maternal blood stream. It may be possible to tell if a previously-pregnant woman is a microchimera. Just to give you some context, there might be 1 fetal cell for every 500,000 maternal cells. The level of exchange is quite small, so this type of chimerism is called microchimerism. If so, the woman essentially has a few cells that have her baby's DNA. Most of these cells die off, but occasionally a few may stick around. During pregnancy, some cells are exchanged between a woman and fetus. It turns out that most mothers are a tiny bit chimeric. If we ever needed to look at their DNA directly, we may need to look for other tissue types instead of blood. If you've ever had a blood transfusion or organ transplantation, you are probably a man-made chimera!įor example, a blood marrow recipient will have different DNA in their blood from the rest of their body. So the recipient will have two sets of DNA: their own (most of their body), and the donor's (in the donated organ). The goal is for the donor cells to permanently live in the recipient.
When someone goes through either of these procedures, they are receiving cells (and DNA!) from another person. Anyone who has received an organ or bone marrow transplantation is actually a chimera. One type of chimera is actually quite common. Image from Wikimedia Man-made chimeras (organ transplantation) However, it is sometimes possible to find out if you are one!Ī mythical chimera. If this estimate is true, most chimeras must not know that they’re chimeric. However, the prevalence of natural human chimeras is hypothesized to be as high as 10%. A human chimera is made up of two different sets of DNA, from two different individuals.Įxperts aren’t quite sure how common natural chimeras are in the human population, as only 100 cases have been documented so far. The mystery was solved when doctors discovered that Keegan was a chimera - the set of DNA in her blood cells was different from that in the other tissues in her body.In ancient Greek mythology, a chimera is a mix between a lion, goat, and serpent. For example, in 2002, a woman named Karen Keegan needed a kidney transplant, and doctors were puzzled when tests of possible family donors showed that she could not be the mother of two of her three sons, according to a report of the case. Some cases of human chimerism have been reported before. She is now focused on living a healthy, active lifestyle to cope with her health challenges, according to People.īecause chimerism is hard to diagnose, it's probably more common than we think, Tarshish said, although overall, it's still probably pretty rare. Muhl was diagnosed with chimerism in 2009, but she went public with her diagnosis last year. She has a number of allergies to foods, medications, supplements, jewelry and insect bites, she added.
Her chimerism has also led to an autoimmune condition, because her body sees her twin's DNA as "foreign" and reacts to it, she wrote.
(It was reported previously that Muhl's fraternal twin was her "sister," meaning both sets of DNA contained female chromosomes.)ĭoctors have told Muhl that she has "two immune systems and two bloodstreams," she wrote in a blog post published in March 2017, meaning cells in her immune system and her blood have two sets of DNA. For example, this could result in ambiguous genitalia, Tarshish said. In cases in which there are different sets of sex chromosomes (XX and XY), a person's internal and external genital can be affected. But it's common for one cell line to outgrow the other, so people end up having the majority of their cells come from one set of DNA, rather than a 50-50 split between the cell lines, Tarshish said. It's hard to predict how the condition will manifest or which tissues will be most affected, Tarshish said.
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